i

BNL-NUREG- 71454-2003-CP
Invited Paper

Displacement Based Seismic Design Methods

C. Hofmayera,C. Millera,Y. Wanga,J. Costellob

a Brookhaven National Laboratory,

Upton, NY, USA

bU.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

Washington, DC, USA

Abstract. A research effort was undertaken to determine the need for any changes to USNRC's
seismic' regulatory practice to reflect the move, in the earthquake engineering community, toward
using expected displacement rather than force (or stress) as the basis for assessing design adequacy.
The research explored the extent to which displacement based seismic design methods, such as given
in FEMA 273, could be useful for reviewing nuclear power stations. Two structures common to
nuclear power plants were chosen to compare the results of the analysis models used. The first
structure is a four-story frame structure with shear walls providing the primary lateral load system,
referred herein as the shear wall model. The second structure is the turbine building of the Diablo
Canyon nuclear power plant. The models were analyzed using both displacement based (pushover)
analysis and nonlinear dynamic analysis. In addition, for the shear wall model an elastic analysis with
ductility factors'applied was also performed. The objectives of the work were to compare the results
between the analyses, and to develop insights regarding the work that would be needed before the
displacement based analysis methodology could be considered applicable to facilities licensed by the
NRC. A summary of the research results, which were published in NUREGICR-6719 in July 2001, is
presented in this paper.

BACKGROUND

The design of structures subjected to seismic loadings has been traditionally performed using elastic
methods. This approach was a natural outgrowth of the use of elastic analysis methods to evaluate
structural performance under working loads. The acceptance criteria for load combinations on
structures, including seismic effects, have been based on ultimate strength provisions. Seismic loads
have often been reduced in this process by dividing the loads by ductility factors to account for the fact
that ductile structures can withstand dynamic loads larger than the elastic limit load.

The USNRC has recently updated its requirements for earthquake engineering design of nuclear power
plants. The regulation governing seismic criteria and design, Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 100, was
revised in December 1996. Since that time, studies of the effects of the Northridge (1994) and Kobe
(1995) earthquakes have been performed. The results of these studies have inspired some
reassessment in the technical community about certain aspects of design practice for conventional
structures. In particular, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of basing earthquake resistant
designs on resistance to seismic forces and then evaluating the structure's ability to tolerate the
expected displacements.

The traditional approach to reassessing the seismic capability of an existing building, for either an
increase in perceived seismic hazard or degradation of the structure, has been to recalculate the

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capacity using the original design calculations with actual, as built, material properties and
dimensions. This reliance on elastic analytical methods has been changing over the past few years as a
result of the growing interest in reducing the potential effects of earthquakes on the nation’s building
inventory. Under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), all federal agencies
are required to evaluate the seismic capacities of their building inventory, to develop retrofits that
reduce the seismic risk, and to prioritize the repairs based on cost benefit criteria. As agencies began
to implement this requirement, it soon became apparent that budgetary constraints emphasize the
importance of prioritization. Useful cost benefit criteria require that the seismic response used to
evaluate the buildings be as realistic as possible. Elastic analysis methods (even with the use of
ductility factors) are not adequate for this purpose. Rather, the analytical methods must focus on
inelastic methods which rationally account for the effect of ductile behavior on the seismic capability
of the building. FEMA 273 [l] sets the basic criteria to be used in implementing NEHRP. Inelastic
analysis methods are proposed which focus on predicting the maximum seismic displacement rather
than the seismic load that a structure can withstand. It is expected that meeting the N E W
requirements will acquaint the profession with the use and benefits of inelastic deformation seismic
analyses.

Therefore, a research effort was undertaken to determine the need for any changes to NRC’s seismic
regulatory practice to reflect the move, in the earthquake engineering community, toward using
expected displacement rather than force (or stress) as the basis for assessing design adequacy.

SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH

A literature survey was conducted on the recent changes in seismic design codes and standards, on-
going activities of code-writing organizations and published documents by researchers on the
displacement-based design methods. The detailed results of the literature survey are reported in
Appendix A to NUREGICR-6719 [2]. A summary of this survey was presented in SMiRT-15 [3].
Based on the survey, it was observed that the transition to displacement based seismic design is a
rather slow process due to inertia invariably encountered in the engineering community. Changes in
one element of a design tend to be counterbalanced by changes in another element. Uniform
nationwide acceptance is expected to come slowly. Thus, it did not appear that there would be a
major “ground swell” of demand to change NRC criteria for new plants.

In the area of rehabilitation of existing buildings, however, it was noted that a need for change has
been accepted. Researchers and practitioners tend to test and implement new ideas first in the areas of
repair or rehabilitation. Thus, it was concluded that if the nuclear industry proposed to utilize some of
the recent developments, it would at first be most likely applied to seismic reevaluation or seismic
margin and PRA studies.

Traditionally, nonlinear analyses of nuclear power station structures have been used for margin studies
where it is desirable to account for ductility effects in a rigorous manner. Seismic margin studies
relate demand loads to a prediction of ultimate capacity. The ultimate capacity for ductile structures
subjected to dynamic loading is tied to a deformation criteria, such as a number of yield deflections,
for estimating failure. Elastic analysis is not suited to this task as it focuses on load and says nothing
about structural behavior post yield. A nonlinear dynamic analysis is required, but is difficult and time
consuming to perform. Hence attempts have been made to apply factors (ductility) to elastic analysis
to account for acceptable structural response into the post yield range.

The FEMA 273 methodology is an alternate approach that accounts for performance into the post
yield range. It requires the performance of a nonlinear static analysis of the structure with the loading
monotonically increased (pushover analysis). Criteria are then given for the maximum displacement
that the structure must withstand; this displacement is related to the level of the earthquake and the
dynamic characteristics of the structure. The distribution of loads and displacements throughout the
elements of the structure at this displacement are then investigated by comparing the element
deformations with acceptance limits. The acceptance limits are set to values typically suitable for
margin studies.

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Our research explored the extent to which FEMA 273 methodology could be useful for reviewing
nuclear power stations. The FEMA 273 methodology has the very desirable characteristic that the
same analysis can be used for evaluating the facility at the design level earthquake and at larger
magnitude earthquakes associated with margin studies. It is also directly applicable to graded criteria
where more important facilities would be subjected to more stringent acceptance limits than less
important facilities.

Two structures common to nuclear power plants were chosen to compare the results of the analysis
models used. The first structure is a four-story frame structure with shear walls providing the primary
lateral load system, referred herein as the shear wall model. The second structure is the turbine
building of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The models were analyzed using both the
displacement based (pushover) analysis dnd nonlinear dynamic analysis. In addition, for the shear
wall model an elastic analysis with ductility factors applied was also performed. The objectives of the
work were to compare the results between the analyses, and to develop insights regarding the work
that would be needed before the displacement based analysis methodology could be considered
applicable to facilities licensed by the NRC.

RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH

The research was completed in the Fall of 2000 and fully documented in Reference 2. A condensed
version of the final report was also presented [4] at the SMiRT16 Conference held in Rosslyn, VA, in
August 200 1. A summary of the research results is presented below.

1. Shear Wall Model

1.1 Description of the Model and Loading

The sheai wall model is a four story reinforced concrete building with shear walls. The typical floor
framing plan of the building is shown in Fig. 1. The building is 197 feet (60 m) long in the North-
South direction and 95.75 feet (29.18 m) wide in the East-West direction, and it is symmetric in both
directions. Since the building is symmetric and the input loading is applied in the North-South
direction, a simplified 2D model which represents half of the building in the East-West direction has
been generated and used in the analyses. This building was previously used as a sample problem for
the IDARC program [SI.

IDARC is a Fortran program developed and maintained by the National Center for Earthquake
Engineering Research (NCEER) at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The program was
designed to perform Inelastic Damage Analysis for Reinforced Concrete structures; thus it was named
IDARC. Since the code has been used to perform nonlinear static (pushover) analysis for commercial
buildings, it was selected for this study to perform both the time history analyses and the FEMA
analyses.

The 2D model is based on the combined stiffness of the three frames marked as N1, N2, and N3 in
Fig. 1. Frame N1 contains 22 columns, frame N2 contains 6 columns and frame N3 consists of 2 shear
walls. The lateral load resisting capacity of the building in the North-South direction comes mainly
from the shear walls. The total height of the building is 48 feet (14.6 m) as each floor has the same
height of 12 feet (3.66 m).

All of the components of the building; columns, beams, and shear walls are modeled as reinforced
concrete elements in the IDARC model. The bases of all of the columns and shear walls are assumed
fixed in all degrees of freedom. The weight of the building is assumed evenly distributed to the joints
of the beams and columns as nodal weights. A stick model with four nodal masses was generated to
represent the mathematical model of the building. The mass of one half of the building is lumped at
these four nodes with each node representing one floor of the building.

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30.0 ’
I
26.75
I
I 83.5
I
I
I
26.75 I 30.0

Figure 1 Plan View of the Building for the Shear Wall Model [4]
(1 ft. = .3048 m)

1.2 Nonlinear Time History Analysis

In order to evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of the FEMA process, a nonlinear time history
analysis was performed on the shear wall model to provide a comparison basis. The ground excitation
input used in the nonlinear time history analysis was the El Centro 1940 NS earthquake, a record of 20
seconds with an interval of 0.02 seconds. The peak acceleration of the ground motion is 0.3488. A
response spectrum of 5% damping has been generated from this time history record and used in the
response spectrum analysis. The viscous damping of 5% used in the response spectrum analysis was
modeled as mass proportional damping in the time history analysis. An integration time interval of
0.005 seconds was used to ensure that the responses of high frequency modes were not missed from
the result. The result shows that the maximum displacement at the roof is 4.75 inches (12.1 cm). A
comparison of the results of the time history analysis with the results from the FEMA process is
discussed below.

A series of runs were executed to calculate the magnitude of the El Centro Earthquake that would
cause the maximum floor drift ratio to reach 0.75%, the FEMA 273 allowable drift ratio. This is
because the time history analysis is nonlinear; thus interpolation is not applicable. After seven tries,
the closest answer to the target is 71.55% (0.249g), at which the maximum floor drift ratio is 0.69%.
With a slight change of the magnitude of the earthquake (i.e., O.O005g, from 71.55% to 71.69%), it
was observed that the floor drift ratio jumps up from 0.69% to 0.83%.

1.3 Analysis of the Shear Wall Model by FEMA 273

To demonstrate the FEMA 273 procedure, two analyses based on different input loading were
completed. One loading was with the uniform load pattern and the other was with the modal load
pattern. In the uniform loading case the distribution of the lateral input loading applied to each floor of
the model is proportional to the mass of that floor divided by the total mass of the structure. In the
modal loading case, the distribution of the lateral loading at each floor level is consistent with the

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distribution of the inertia force of that floor obtained from a response spectrum analysis of the
building. This analysis results in a predicted roof displacement equal to 4.36 inches (1 1.1 cm). It is
also found that 92 % of the El Centro earthquake results in the FEMA allowable drift ratio (0.75 %).

1.4 Response Spectrum Analysis of Shear Wall Model

A response spectrum analysis was performed for the shear wall model. This is representative of the
type of analysis that is performed using force based methods. The base shear predicted for the El
Centro input motion is 6,301 k (28,028 kN).

1.5 Comparison Between Methods

Table 1 compares the time history analysis results to those obtained using the pushover analyses.
Since the modal pattern results in the larger maximum floor drift, it is controlling and used to compare
with the time history results. The displacement based method predicts a roof displacement of 4.36"
(1 1.1 cm) or 8 % lower than the time history analysis. This comparison is quite good. For the floor
drifts, the modal pattern loading case shows the same trend as the time history analysis; the floor drift
gets larger as the height increases, and the third floor has the largest drift. It is also interesting to
compare the predicted seismic capacity of the building using both the time history and displacement
based methods. The capacity is based on an allowable drift of 0.75% as specified in F E W 273. The
seismic capacity of the building was found from the time history analysis to be defined with an El
Centro response spectra anchored at 0.25g. This compares with a displacement based predicted
seismic capacity of 0.32g ZPA .

Table 1 Comparison of Nonlinear Time History Analysis with Pushover Analyses

(1 in. = 25.4 mm)

Nonlinear T.H. Uniform Pattern Modal Pattern

Roof Disp.(in) 4.75 4.38 4.36

0.82 0.76 0.76

Floor Drift Drift Ratio Floor Drift Drift Ratio Floor Drift Drift Ratio
(inches) ("h) (inches) ("h) (inches) ("%
Fourth Floor 1.40 0.97 1.05 0.73 1.15 0.81

Third Floor 1.41 0.98 '1.08 0.75 1.18 0.82

1.41 0.98 1.08 0.75 1.14 0.79

0.77 0.54 1.17 0.81 0.88 0.61

The pushover analysis indicated that the building could withstand 0.92 times El Centro. If earthquakes
of this size were used in the response spectrum analysis, the base shear would be 0.92 * 6301 = 5,797
kips (25,777 kN). The capacity of the walls is set at V,, = 1,310 kips (5,827 kN). The response
spectrum would predict the same capacity as the pushover analysis if the ductility factor of 5797 /
1310 = 4.4 were used. The Uniform Building Code allows an R factor (accounting for ductility,
overstrength, and load redistribution effects) equal to 5 for a shear wall structure so that the pushover
analysis gives slightly more conservative results for this case.

The following conclusions were found from the comparisons:

1. The displacement based method gives results comparable to the nonlinear time history analysis for
the shear wall building where there are only material nonlinearities.

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2. The use of ductility factors with a linear response spectrum analysis gives results which are
comparable to those obtained from either the nonlinear time history analysis or the displacement based
method.

2. Diablo Canyon Turbine Building

The Diablo Canyon turbine building was selected for the second case study comparing results obtained
using the nonlinear time history and displacement based methods. This building was selected because
it is a nuclear power plant structure for which complete nonlinear time history analyses are available.
These analyses are available for two different seismic input levels such as would be required for a
seismic margin study. It is also of interest since the nonlinear effects include both material
nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity (gaps).

A probabilistic evaluation of the Diablo Canyon turbine building was performed [6] during the plant
licensing reviews. The objective of that evaluation was to determine the probability of failure for
several levels of severe earthquake inputs. A simple model of the building was developed that
characterized its performance through displacements that were likely to cause collapse. Nonlinear load
- deflection curves were defined for each element of the model. A suite of 25 seismic motions, defined
with response spectra, was then selected from actual earthquake records recorded at sites that have
similar geologic formations as found at the Diablo Canyon site. These records were scaled to obtain
any required magnitude of input motions. The dynamic analyses were performed using 25 time
histories scaled so that the average (over the 3 cps to 8.5 cps frequency range) spectral accelerations
were 3g's and 6g's.

I I I

PEDESTAL

INELASTIC
STIFFNESS

-
@ INELASTIC SHEAR ELnilEMS (SHEAR DEFORMATION ONLY) l9 f bINELASTIC
EAR

A - INELASTIC FLEXURAL BEAM ELENENT (FLEXURAL DEFORMATION ONLY) 2o ELEMENT

-
li] OPERATING FLOOR ELEMENT
DETAIL A
-TURBINE PEDESTAL
a -GAP ELEMENT

Figure 2 Diablo Canyon Turbine Building .Model B

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Nonlinear dynamic response analyses were then performed to evaluate the peak model displacements
for each of the 25 seismic input motions scaled to a common average spectral acceleration (averaged
over the 3 cps to 8.5 cps frequency range). A statistical analysis was performed on the 25 predicted
displacements to obtain median and standard deviation estimates of the displacements. A comparison
of this displacement data with likely element failure displacements resulted in a prediction of the
probability of failure for each earthquake level.

Two models, designated A and Bywere used for the displacement based analyses. Model A is identical
to the one used in the original Diablo Canyon study [SI. Model B is shown in Fig. 2. The two elements
of the operating floor diaphragm for Model A are combined into a single element for Model B with
two rigid links used to connect the center of the operating floor to the gap elements around the turbine.

A displacement-based analysis (FEMA 273) was performed for this structure and the results compared
with those obtained fiom the time history methodology used in Ref. 6. Median model characteristics
are used and the input seismic motion is defined with the median response spectra for the 25 input
motions used in the Ref. 6 study. These predictions are then compared with the median results
obtained from the force based probabilistic analyses.

2.1 Comparison of Time History and Displacement Based Results

The displacement results obtained with the displacement-based method and the time history methods
are compared in this section. The time history methods developed log normal distributions for the
displacements. The error between the two is normalized with respect to the log standard deviation and
is defined as:

Where,

Dfema
= displacement based prediction

D, = median of time history prediction

PD = log standard deviation for time history analysis

The results of the time history analyses are combined with the results of the displacement based
analyses to show the differences between the two sets of results, with summaries given in Tables 2 and
3 for the 3g and 6g cases, respectively.

Table 2 Differences Between Forced Based and Displacement Based Analyses for 3g Input
(1 in. = 25.4 mm)

Location Top of Wall 19 Top of Wall 3 1 Operating Floor Turbine

Dm 0.537" 0.704" 3.252" 2.579"

Pd 0.662 0.624 0.417 0.3

Model A - Dfema 0.44" 0.432" 7.08" 1.92"

Model A - E 0.3 0.78 1.87 0.98

Model B - Dfema 0.90" 1.39" 6.60" 2.77"

Model B - E 0.78 . - 1.09 1.7 0.24

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Location Top of Wall 19 Top of Wall 3 1 Operating Floor Turbine

Dm 3.522" 4.922" 8.574" 6-227It

Pd 0.587 0.541 0.412 0.415

Model A - Dfema 2.88" 3.08" 14.16" 6.77"

Model A - E 0.34 0.87 1.28 0.2

-
Model B Df,,, I 3.26" 3.46" 13.20" 11.91"

Model B - E 0.13 0.65 1.05 1.56

It can be seen that the displacement based method using a FEMA 273 approach does not give results
which are comparable to the more complete nonlinear time history analysis for the Diablo Canyon
turbine building where both material and geometric nonlinearities (gaps) were included. The
displacement-based method generally over-predicts the response. The predictions between the two
methods are closer for the response at the top of the shear walls (Wall 19 and 31) than for the
operating floor diaphragms or for the turbine pedestal. For the 3g input motion, the Model A
predictions of the shear wall displacements are better than the Model B predictions, but the reverse is
true for the operating floor diaphragm and turbine pedestal displacements. The Model B predictions
are better than the Model A predictions for the 6g input except for the turbine pedestal deflection. This
result is probably due to the strong effect of the gaps on the system response.

Four factors contribute to the observed differences:

1. Since the turbine is so massive, the dynamic characteristics of the building change dramatically
when the gaps close. The basic idea behind the displacement-based approach is that an "equivalent"
static analysis can be performed to represent the dynamic response. It is unlikely that a single static
model could adequately model the response of a system that changes so dramatically as the gaps close
and open.

2. The load path changes from the turbine pedestal supporting the building to the building supporting
the turbine pedestal as the operating floor diaphragm and then the turbine pedestal reach their
respective yield loads. It is also unlikely that this could be modeled with a single equivalent static
model.

3. The displacement-based methodology was developed for cases where the building has softening
stiffness characteristics. Some elements of the turbine building problem have the opposite
characteristic. After the operating floor diaphragm yields, it is partially supported from the turbine
pedestal. This support results in a nonlinear increase in building stiffness.

4. The turbine pedestal and shear wall structure behave as uncoupled systems during a large part of the
response. The displacement based method attempts to model this with a single degree of freedom
system which cannot capture the dynamic characteristicsof both in a single model.

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1
CONCLUSIONS

The following conclusions were drawn from the results of this study:

1. It was concluded that there is no need to revise nuclear power plant acceptance criteria for seismic
design of new plants to address displacement based methods. The displacement based approach is not
likely to be used for the design of nuclear power facilities since the current acceptance criteria are
force based and all responses are required to remain in the linear elastic range. While a displacement
based approach could be developed for plants similar to the existing LWR designs, it would offer no
advantages over the force based methodologies currently in use for evaluating design adequacy.

2. If new plant designs have different controlling accident scenarios than the current generation and
are more tolerant of inelastic deformation, then displacement based methods would seem to have
potential application. The same observation also applies to fuel cycle facilities.

3. Seismic margin studies for existing nuclear facilities are based on displacement acceptance criteria
(usually inelastic deformation limits corresponding to a given probability of failure). The
displacement based analysis is directly applicable to problems where only material nonlinearity
occurs. The displacement based methods offer two advantages over nonlinear time history analysis.
First, the displacement based approach (or pushover analysis) is much simpler and less time
consuming to use than the time history analysis. Second, this simplification is likely to reduce the
potential for erroneous results and to increase the number of engineers that have the background
required to perform the analysis.

4. The use of displacement based methods can be expected to increase as fragility analyses are
introduced for risk information purposes. The method greatly reduces the effort required to produce
structural fragility curves from that which is required using time history analyses. A single static
nonlinear analysis is required to produce the pushover curve. Solutions for different probabilities of
failure are then obtained by evaluating the criteria earthquake required for the structural displacement
to reach the acceptance criteria associated with the probability of failure. Since many nonlinear time
history analyses would be required to generate the fragility curve, a displacement based approach has
potential for cost savings and is likely to become popular.

5 . Additional studies need to be performed before nuclear power plant structures with both material
and geometric nonlinearities can be treated with the current displacement based methods that presume
,only material nonlinearity.

6 . If the displacement based methods of FEMA 273 are to be applied on a wide scale to nuclear
facilities, efforts must be undertaken to develop appropriate coefficients and displacement limits that
are consistent with the importance of the structure. Alternative forms of displacement based methods
are also possible. The primary steps in any displacement based method are to predict the expected
displacement of the structure to earthquakes of interest accounting for nonlinear characteristics of the
structure, and to evaluate the details of the structure to determine whether sufficient ductility is
available to accommodate the displacement pattern with adequate margin. A method, similar to
FEMA 273, 'could be developed specifically for nuclear structures.

DISCLAIMER NOTICE

This work was performed under the auspices of the U. S . Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington D.C. The findings and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the U. S . Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Brookhaven National
Laboratory.

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REFERENCES
BSSA, ‘“EHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings,” FEMA-273,
October 1997.

Wang, Y.K., Miller, C.A., Hofinayer, C.H., “Assessment of the Relevance of Displacement
Based Design MethoddCriteria to Nuclear Plant Structures,” NUREGKR-6719, July 2001.

Hofinayer, C.H., Park, Y.J., Costello, J.F., “Displacement Based Seismic Design Criteria,”
Transactions of the 15* International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor
Technology (SMiRT-15), Seoul, Korea, August 15-20, 1999.

Hofinayer, C., Miller, C., Wang, Y., Costello, J., “Assessment of the Relevance of
Displacement-Based Design MethoddCriteria to Nuclear Plant Structures,” Transactions of
the 16* International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology”(SMiRT-
16), Washington, D. C., August 12-17,2001.

IDARC 2D Version 4.0 “A Program for the Inelastic Damage Analysis of Buildings”
NCEER-96-0010. S U N Y at Buffalo, January, 1996.

Kennedy, R.P., Wesley, D.A., Tong, W.H., “ProbabilisticEvaluation of the Diablo Canyon
Turbine Building Seismic Capacity Using Nonlinear Time History Analyses,” Report
Number 1643.01 prepared for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, California,
December 1988.

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